Boat hoists have heretofore been provided for use in inland lakes or the like to elevate a boat so that it is supported above the water when not in use. Many of these hoists move the boat in an arc by the swinging of parallelogram frames or the like. Other hoists, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,697,048, have been devised wherein there is a straight up and down movement of the boat to lift it out of the water between uses. However, this latter type of hoist has no provision for smooth operation or for uniform movement of the lifting platforms or beams during lifting thereof. Nor has there been any simple and inexpensive way provided for using the same lifting mechanism to free the feet of the frame from the lake bottom at the end of a season.